Skull Leader

Ahh, that was back from the days when X-men was still worth reading and collecting (my XM/UXM collection runs from about Ish 90-350 or so... when they started doing the whole "artist of the week" thing as they tried to find their new way, it really upset me. All through the 1980s and into the early 1990s (when they started up a new (just) "X-men" line) Those were the days worth reading! The Artwork was consistent from one issue to the next, everything just gelled really well I thought.

After the ceremony, a few jets began departing. First up was 4 or 5 Super Hornets from VFA-41. I guess most of them were ex-tomcat drivers that were on hand for the final flight and were heading back to NAS Lemoore: After VFA-41 (and a solitary VFA-15 "Valions" Legacy hornet) "left the building", about 5 VFA-106 "Gladiators" Legacy hornets were departing for some training sorties. Some were single-seaters, but there was also a pair of family-models: After everyone departed, I took the opportunity to shoot photos of all the Super Hornets that were on static-display for the ceremony (all of the super hornets present were past-tomcat squadrons that sent one of their show-jets for the ceremony) "Bullet 100" (VFA-2 Bounty Hunters) "Gypsy 275" (VFA-32 Gypsy Swordsmen) (I *HATE* the new "my little pony" design...) "Ripper 111" (VFA-11 Red Rippers) (both show-jets were out on training missions, so a line jet had to do) "Fast Eagle 100" (VFA-41 Black Aces) (you can see the tail of "Camelot 200" of the VFA-14 Tophatters behind it): "Vampire 100" (VX-9 Vampires) "Lion 200" (VFA-213 Black Lions) (this jet is hot off the assembly line) and last but certainly not least: "Victory 200" (VFA-103 Jolly Rogers) (I've seen this jet probably 4 times now... I never tire of looking at it) and now, if your bandwidth has been raped enough, back to your regularly scheduled programming

It has been requested that I post some photos from my trip to the Tomcat Sunset ceremony... I've selected a very tiny sample of photos (all of them pertaining to the jets, I didn't re-size any from any of the parties I attended) I hope you enjoy! Here's "Bandwagon 103", the high-visability ceremonial jet. I thought the scheme looked better on the low-vis bird, but everyone seemed to be after this one: "Bandwagon 102", the ceremonical "taxi jet". This is the jet everyone believed would be flying the final flight.: The ground crew lines up for the send-off: Taxiing down to the arming area (pretty much out of sight of the public). The jet shut down there and another jet (already spooled up) took it's place: "Bandwagon 107" made the ceremonial flight. VF-31 was bound and determined to have "Felix" on the ceremonial "last flight" jet (any astute observer without a camera would've noticed that this jet had drop-tanks and pylons on it...): We then got a single weak-ass flyby at low speed and at high altitude... the crowd was very upset at this: The reason behind this was later made clear. The day before (friday) the two "last cat" schemed jets nearly traded paint on a section take off (read: taking off together). Once the admiral of NAVAIR got wind of this, the order came down: "You get ONE JET, ONE PASS, with as little margin for error or mishap as possible!" Any "high-balling fighter spirit antics" would earn the respective pilot a one-way trip to the "dishonorable discharge" line and that would be the end of it. Hard to argue with the "safety" philosophy, but you can tell everyone was dissapointed. However, we weren't rushed immediately off the flight line. In fact, things got pretty interesting! A number of hornets from the VFA-83 Rampagers began coming in (notice the assymetrical loadouts): There were about 4 or 5 of those guys (probably spent half a memory card on those guys alone), then a pair of VFA-11 Super Hornets came in. My camera's focus was fighting me about that time, so I got NO good shots of the 'Rippers jets. This one came out "ok" I guess: (to be continued)

*sighs at yet another lame-ass movie idea* ... I'm really starting to hate this world...

Richard, lemme make some of the photos a little more "browser friendly" and host them and I'll post 'em up

I agree with the cornhusker... I understand a few of you are real afficionados when it comes to Boeing 7-whatevers, Airbus, etc... can we get back to fast-movers though? And Richard, it's "When in Rome, do as many Romans as possible"

Still, I would say my statement has been vindicated

I want my PS3.

Not necessarily so. I'm a diehard G1 Toy fan and growing as an F-15 fan every day, I do not at all mind the new color. I'm rather pleased with this iteration of Starscream and even if they don't change the color when the US release comes out, I'll be all over it. I rather like the fact that it fits in more as a "real" jet with the paintscheme than the original scheme does (what I always thought the intended purpose should be),

This is the 2004 Fighter Fling Video. They did one of these every year from about 1988 until 2004 (after which there were not enough Tomcat squadrons left to really do a full video). 2003 and 2004 are about the only videos truly worth watching out of the entire set (I picked up the DVDs a while back... damn near impossible to find these days except on Ebay, and be prepared to PAY) Cruise videos for each squadron are cool to watch too (I've got DVDs of both VF-103's and VF-32's last Tomcat cruises).

FAIL.

LOL, the MSEX-065 Series "Sack II" I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep now... my adolescenthood has been raped...

The "This Is Animation Special" books have sheet music (mostly just the vocals and a few chords) for a few of the original series tunes, and someone has already posted the sheetmusic from DYRL out of the TIAS DYRL book... Valkyrie, if he doesn't buy that book off of you, I'd definately be interested in making a purchase (being a performing musician, I'm ALWAYS looking for new stuff to put on my shelf)

I'm ALL over this one once a state-side release occurs. I'll be about $20 cheaper and worlds easier to find...

Well, I attended the ceremony starting on thursday and leaving on Sunday. All the parties were awesome, the symposiums were even better, the final flight was.... awesomeless. Long story short: The ceremonial Tomcat everyone saw taxi down to the end of the runway was NOT the Tomcat that flew. VF-31 was bound and determined to have "Felix" on the tail of the final flight jet, despite what the admiralty told them. VF-31 had a jet already spooled up waiting down in the arming area by the runway... when the ceremonial jet taxiied down there (out of sight), they shut down and the VF-31 jet continued on to the runway. Despite rumors, there was no problem with "Bandwagon 102", it was merely the squadron's way of sticking it the way fighter pilots are wont to do. Then we get ONE lousy flyby at low speed as the Tomcat flies of to NAS Norfolk... I was VERY glad to be there and to shoot photos of the whole event, but they could've made it so much better...

"Private Pyle I'm gonna give you three seconds; exactly three-f-ing-seconds to wipe that stupid looking grin off your face or I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull-f@%$ you!" "Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy f-ing walrus-looking piece of sh!t. Get the f#$* off of my obstacle! Get the f#$* down off of my obstacle, now!! Move it!!! I'm going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world. I will motivate you, Private Pyle, if it short-dicks every cannibal on the Congo" "Don't fall Private Pyle! That would break my #$*&()$ heart!" "Today... is Christmas! There will be a magic show at zero-nine-thirty! Chaplain Charlie will tell you about how the free world will conquer Communism with the aid of God and a few marines! God has a hard-on for marines because we kill everything we see! He plays His games, we play ours! To show our appreciation for so much power, we keep heaven packed with fresh souls! God was here before the Marine Corps! So you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps! Do you ladies understand?"

different things. Carrier names like "Hornet" or "Wasp" really don't have any ingenious origins... in WWII they needed a lot of carriers and didn't have time to put a ton of thought into their names. Some were named after battles (USS Ticonderoga, USS Antietam, USS Coral Sea or the USS Lexington, etc). Ships like the USS Nimitz or the USS Carl Vinson were named after people who had a great deal to do with the Navy (Nimitz was an admiral in the pacific theater of WWII, Vinson a senator that championed many causes for the navy). It's only in recent years (read: the past 30 or so) that the concept of naming carriers after presidents became a fad. USS Franklin D. Roosevelt - Midway Class USS John F. Kennedy - a one-off "Kennedy class" carrier. Similar to the Kitty Hawk class in size and capability USS Theodore Roosevelt - Nimitz Class USS Dwight D. Eisenhower - Nimitz Class USS George Washington - Nimitz Class USS Abraham Lincoln - Nimitz Class USS Harry S Truman - Nimitz Class USS Ronald Regan - Nimitz Class the USS George HW Bush will be the last of the Nimitz class carriers, but is supposed to feature a number of innovations that will become standard on the new CVN-21 class carriers we will be switching to after that (more efficient nuclear power plants, magnetic rail-gun catapults, etc)

this is why I never read scripts before I see a movie. Without seeing the visual effects, the actors/characters, and hearing the soundtrack you're only getting a piece of the whole picture. NO... it's not gonna be just like the original series. Fans should be used to getting assraped like that by now. The best thing to do is approach it with an open mind. But then, that's probably too much to ask of the membership of this place. Spielberg will be condemned to a thousand christian hells before the movie even hits the theaters... another project doomed before it's had a chance to (possibly) justify it's own existence.

There was a huge discussion about this on another forum that some of us here frequent... naming ships after still-alive people is a serious no-no to me. I also think we're bestowing people's names onto ships a little too frequently. It's getting to the point that someone with enough money (who happens to be recorded, either by doccument, video, or otherwise saying just one time "I support the United States Navy") can get their name on a ship. This can be a touchy subject considering the potential political implications, I hope everyone keeps that in mind while they discuss this

I can imagine a large community of "haves" and "have nots" trying to decide what is best for all of that stuff... I'm sure it would be a long time before any definative resolution was made.

They get an "A" for effort, but they could go the extra step and make the space scenes smoother. I agree that if they're gonna CG up the space stuff, they might as well make the motions more realistic. I figure I'll probably get this.

I really didn't need another reason to laugh at Lucasfilm, but they're just making it so damn EASY....

reminds me of one of my favorites (probably seen a million times, but always cool)

Most. Overrated. Anime. EVER. I swear, if I run into one more fanboy that slobbers over Rei or Asuka (or that other chick, worthless enough that I don't even remember her name) I'm probably going to donkey-punch someone.

I LOLed. Every time someone thinks happy thoughts about TSC, God kills a hot asian supermodel. Please... think of the supermodels. Trailers looked meh. The fact that ADV wouldn't release this pap under their label is an absolute riot (c'mon, ADV will publish ANYTHING...). I'm sure I'll give it a check, but they're making it really hard to approach it with anything close to an open mind.